How to Select an Ecommerce Platform for Your Online Store

Whilst looking for a great summary of things to consider in setting up an e-commerce store, this week I came across this amazing article by Satish Ithamsetty. I think it is well worth a read. What do you think?

If you are considering running an eCommerce store, it’s likely that you’ve been trying to decide which platform to run it from. Of course, you could pay a designer to build you a personalized website, but this is expensive and is hardly ever the best option for a small business. So that leaves you with a few choices. Do you set up a store on an online marketplace like eBay, Amazon, or Etsy, or do you use a standalone platform provider like Magento or Shopify? Here we take a look at these options so you can determine which is best.

Online Marketplaces and Online Store

At first glance, you may think that selling on an online marketplace like Amazon or eBay is your best option. After all, you don’t need to build your own website, spend money on hosting or a domain name, and you can literally set yourself up within minutes. Online marketplaces also provide you with a host of eager buyers, which can help you to start selling products right from the get-go. However, there are fees involved with selling through platforms such as these, and there are also guidelines that need to be followed. Here are the BlackFriday Deals for Bloggers, which comes every year for you.

The main reason why many people choose to sell on online marketplaces is because of their potential for sales and the ability to reach customers who didn’t previously know they existed. However, in order to use them effectively, you need to be aware of the fees they charge and whether you can afford to pay these within your margins. You’ll also need to determine which platforms to use – you may prefer the professionalism of Amazon for example, or the ability to showcase your brand on eBay.

Online Shopping Platforms:

A step up from the online marketplaces are online shopping platforms. These give you full design over your layout, branding, and sales prices, and typically just charge a fee for the software, domain, and hosting. Again, these are easy to set up and Shopify and Magento support are readily available from online companies if you need help.

Shopify is an especially popular option for small businesses and even comes with an app that you can use from your smartphone. Magento is the far better option for eCommerce website stores that have high hopes for the future as it gives you full control over everything you could ever think of. This does mean that you’ll need to spend time learning how to use the software (unless you hire someone to help you), but the results will far outweigh your effort.

Of course, when using an online shopping platform, you will be responsible for your SEO and marketing in order to draw people to your site.

Which is Best?

Many people opt to use the online marketplace whilst having their own website, and this is often the best course of action for small eCommerce stores. You will be given the ability to reach a wider audience and can send leaflets with the items you post directing your customers to your online store. Long term, having your own shop is always the better option, but there is no harm in trying a few different options until you find one that you are happy with. This is the smart guide on Best Online Marketplace for Sellers.

Article Author: Satish Ithamsetty

Article Source: https://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-to-select-an-ecommerce-platform-for-your-online-store

Top Ecommerce Platform and Online Marketplace Comparison - Printful Inte...

A hot topic for marketing products online is the choice of which online shopping platform to use for your business. I was impressed by the video here from the guys at Printful Custom Printing.

They give an excellent and concise guide to the pros and cons of a whole host of shopping platforms.

Cost, complexity, skillset required and suggested purposes for business types are all covered.

Has this guide reinforced your choice or will you now be looking at an alternative?

How Social Media Marketing will help you?

This interesting article by Lokesh Sharma, as the title suggests, looks at “How Social Media Marketing will help you?”

Social media marketing is one of the best ways to reach your customers and tell about your business in more effective way.

Social media is very important to build a strong and consistent brand across all social media platforms.

Do you have a SOCIAL MEDIA PAGE for your business?

Nowadays no business can thrive without social media handles, some of the best social media platforms include FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TWITTER AND LINKEDIN.

All these platforms have a daily combined active user of up to 2 billion… Imagine your possibilities.

Marketing

Think of it as an investment in your business.
NOT AN EXPENSE!

I encourage business owners to think of their marketing as an investment and not an expense. The purpose of marketing is to create brand awareness as well as AMAZING return on investment. (Marketing)

So, a lot of small/local businesses only see the upfront cost when initially thinking about marketing and not the long-term impact that it will have on their business. Think in the long term…

There are some Social Media Marketing strategies that you should be focusing on

• Define goals and objectives.
• Put together a winning team.
• Understand your audience.
• Look and listen.
• Choose a social platform
• Create a content plan and calendar.
• Monitor, analyses, engage and repeat.

What’s new in Social Media?

Social Media offers some of the new feature that you are going to witness on the social platforms in the coming days

Facebook is testing a new option to cross post FACEBOOK stories to Instagram.
LinkedIn will make 16 LinkedIn courses for free in coming days.
INSTAGRAM shares new information prompts on coronavirus in home feeds.
INSTAGRAM IS testing new option to reshare live videos on IG TV
YOUTUBE changes trending tab to explore which will show more content categories at one place.

Goals of Social Media Marketing

BRAND AWARNESS
BUILDING COMMUNITY
LEADS AND DRIVE SALES

Social media marketing can’t be summed up with just 3 goals but these 3 goals right here should be your main focus:

As a Social media consultant, it is your business to take care of another business.

BY THAT I MEAN it is your business to grow your brand that isn’t yours. You create brand awareness which in turn builds a community around a brand which also builds leads and drive sales.

“SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING IS POWERFUL FOR ANY BUSINESS.
Business that realize this will thrive

The others will regret….”

It isn’t just Advertising. Its brand/business

EXPOSURE it becoming the dominant force in your local community.

Reasons Why You Advertise on Social Media

• Social media advertising allows you to connect with the people who need your services or products.
• Social media provides varied platforms and numerous advertising formats.
• Social media platforms allow you to create specific target audiences.
• Social media platforms drive targeted traffic to your website or landing page.
• Social media marketing will get you more sales.
• The ROI on social media ads is unbeatable.
• Advertising on social media offers insights of your customers.

Social Media Platforms
Every social media platform is different and important!

Its time to treat them that way! You shouldn’t share the same piece of content to each platform. You have to adapt to that specific platform and repurpose it.

INSTAGRAM: This is where you are telling people about your content piece by taking a picture of your shake at a cute café. Instagram is about showing the content.

FACEBOOK: This is where you are telling people about your content. For ex you could write a post about how you re loving your new dress. This is where you can let your copywriting skills shine!

TWITTER: This is where you popup your followers. Post about things on the go and short snip bits of your days. Tweet that you are all about that VENTI life nowadays (and don’t forget the hashtags)

PINTREST: Here is where you get to share your expertise! Have a great skinny vanilla latte recipe Go ahead and pin it!

LINKEDIN: We are going to go ahead and tell you LINKEDIN is not dead! It’s a great place for business owners to connect! So, if you are coffee shop owner, don’t forget to include it on your profile.

YOUTUBE: We all love YouTube. It’s the best place for long video content. Go ahead and share some coffee reviews taste tests and tutorials on YouTube!

SOCIAL MEDIA IS ABOUT THE PEOPLE, NOT ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS.
PROVIDE FOR THE PEOPLE AND THE PEOPLE WILL PROVIDE FOR YOU.

You can certainly drive sales through #socialmedia by posting products and offers but establishing loyalty between your customers and your company is the true purpose of social media. Don’t you agree?

Social Media Platforms Explained Above
FACEBOOK: ENGAGE THEM

TWITTER: LISTEN TO THEM

LINKEDIN: EDUCATE THEM

YOUTUBE: SHOW THEM

PINTREST: SHARE WITH THEM

INSTAGRAM: GET TO KNOW THEM

Which platforms are you on for your business?

Share in the comments!

GROW YOU BUSINESS WITH US AT PACELAB- SEO AGENCY LONDON

Follow us for the latest updates about SEO, SEM and SMM at our Facebook page “PACELABTECHNOLOGY”

Visit our site www.pacelab.co

Author's Bio: 

Lokesh Sharma is a Indian Computer Architect and Internet entrepreneur who is co-founder and CEO of PaceLab International Group. Lokesh has over 10 years of experience in Technology, building complex platforms and accelerating sales and growth through use of Technology.
Lokesh obtained Masters in Computer Science from Coventry University and MBA from University of Leicester in England. As the CEO of PaceLab, Lokesh vision is to help brands connect with the customers globally driving sales and revenue for the success of the firm.

Article source: https://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-social-media-marketing-will-help-you

How to Attract Customers - 5 Marketing Strategies to Dominate Social media

This video from Tyson Zahner is from back in 2018 but the message is still fresh.
Note how the points are very clearly customer focussed.

As he says "Talk about your PROSPECT, not your product"

What do you think of his message? What can it do for your marketing?

6 Digital Marketing Tips for Marketers in 2020

If you are looking for some digital marketing tips, you are on the right page. In this article, we are going to discuss 6 of the most effective online marketing tips and tricks. With these tips, you are most likely to enjoy great results.

1. Optimize your site for Voice Search

According to predictions, half of the searches will be based on voice search feature in 2020. Therefore, we suggest that you focus on this aspect of your online marketing strategies. In other words, your business must be voice search supportive. For instance, you can have the "near me" feature, which will recite the best local results if the users use the term to make a voice search.

2. Benefit from Influencer Marketing

Currently, the fastest growing digital marketing is influencer marketing. The thing is that people tend to purchase products recommended by their favorite celebrities. These are known as social media influencers.

Today, social media influencers are also quite trustworthy in the eyes of their followers. Therefore, you can hire them for your influencer marketing campaigns. The good thing is that you don't have to spend a huge sum of money for these campaigns.

3. Revaluate your Paid Advertising Campaigns

With time, advertising is going through a lot of changes. And this has changed the needs of businesses as well. Today, the advertising trend is to focus on what a product or service can do for the users.

What you need to do is personalize the advertisements by including the features of the products that the users may have a deep interest in. Aside from this, the ads must be straightforward and concise.

4. Consider Personalization

According to statistics, at least 70% customers that buy online have a liking for personalization on blogs and sites. For instance, if a buyer buys something from you, you may send them an email with their name in the email. The good thing is that personalization is not a costly or complicated process. The whole purpose of personalization is to make the buyers realize that you value them.

5. Consider the Visual Search Feature

According to statistics, visual search is also quite effective these days. In simple words, if a user clicks a product photo of their choice, websites, such as Pinterest and Google show the buying options right under the picture of that product. So, the buyers have the liberty to buy the product by clicking the photo.

6. Post Video Content

Video content is quite popular on social media platforms, such as Facebook. If you look at statistics, you will know that 52% of buyers feel more confident when buying products after watching a video. As far as finding out more about a product, at least 68% of buyers like to watch short videos instead of reading long articles, manuals or infographics.

The Takeaway

Although the world of digital marketing seems quite challenging, you can make these campaigns much easier to run if you hire the services of a good online marketer. So, it's better to look for a good professional service provider.

If you are looking for automated SEO software for article marketing or increase website traffic, we suggest that you check out AllStarBoost

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10291660

About the author: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Shalini_M/2609777

The Most Tragic Mistake a New Marketer Almost Always Makes

The Most Tragic Mistake a New Marketer Almost Always Makes
By: Richard Meredith

So... you're a new marketer, and you want to make extra money or even perhaps a great living!  One of the first things you do is join an affiliate program or downline club of some sort.  Or maybe even you are trying your hand at Ebay or another auction service by marketing some nicely profitable product.  Now, once you have some sort of online business vehicle, your mind must gravitate to exactly what kind of advertising to generate sales or memberships.

Online business is an awful lot like regular advertising. What draws you to a business in your home town? Coupons? Specials? Give-aways? A personal recommendation from a friend or trusted associate?

Oh yes - and here is a little secret that is often not known or ignored:

When it comes to building any kind of business online you do the same thing!  Give away a free report, an informative ebook, a trial software, an online course, or maybe a subscription to a free newsletter or ezine.  This is just simply the way it is done with online business, period.  But here is the most critical part... you MUST capture the name and email address FIRST before you give access to it!

It is widely known by all of the top marketers online that your PRIMARY task to be successful is to compile a list of people (prospective customers) that are interested in the type of thing you are giving away!  This is so easy to do with an autoresponder.  They just fill a form, and they are automatically added to your list, and then are redirected to your download page or membership site.

Then the next task is to automatically send a series of messages with that autoresponder that tell more about the reasons why your product or products (or membership program) are BENEFICIAL to them!  WHY? Because it is infinitely better to contact a prospect several times rather than only once.  It is a proven fact that most people will NOT  buy from you or join your program until they have been approached at least 5 to 7 times.  This is done as I said, automatically, on a timed basis slowly tapering off until it is a slow drip of messages until they buy or join- or unsubscribe from your list.  And when you run special promotions of any kind, a feature of the best autoresponders allows you to broadcast to your entire list any time you want.  This is how many marketers can make huge amounts of money and sales ON DEMAND- whenever and as often as they like!

Details about which autoresponders are best, and the techniques of developing a list and how often to mail to that list are subjects that deserve more time and attention than can be given here... but suffice it to say that if YOU are not FIRST developing a list, and then marketing to your list AFTERWARDS- you're just missing the boat!

Pure and simple!

So if you are advertising an affiliate link, or your products' sale page... or anything other than your free subscription, report, ebook, or course - it can indeed be the most tragic mistake you can make in your online business strategy!

If this is you, pull back and regroup, and completely re-think your marketing strategy now before you lose too much time, money, energy, or motivation.

And remember... BUILD your LIST!

Author Bio
Richard Meredith is the author of the critically acclaimed ebook "The BLACK BOOK of Online Business"- the must-have source book for anyone doing business online... or even THINKING about it!
www.straight-talkmarketing.com

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com - Free Website Content
http://www.articlegeek.com/business/marketing/mistake_new_marketer_makes.htm

Avoid these 3 affiliate marketing mistakes